Questions

Question 1

What interests you about UEA?

Answer 1

Curriculum: Early clinical contact with patients from the first month of the course. Improve communication skills with real patients. Consultation skills tutorials complement this. PBL for small group learning.
Campus: Amazing campus, one of the biggest sports facilities at a UK university.
Research: Clinical medicine, musculoskeletal science, medical microbiology, cardiovascular medicine and prostate cancer
Opportunities: Over 200 societies. Football, music. Elective after year 4.
City: Really nice city, looked round on an open day and loved it.

Question 2

What do you know about the PBL here at UEA?

Answer 2

As far as I’m aware, PBL involves small groups of students working through a case and you have to come up with your own objectives. You then go away and research a topic related to the case and present what you have learnt to your group. PBL allows you to learn the science via realistic scenarios. Also the diagnostic stage in which you pick out salient information from the case as a group is similar to how a multidisciplinary team works on ward rounds.

Question 3

Why do you want to be a doctor?

Answer 3

Work experience:
Volunteering:
Interest in human biology in medicine:

Question 4

What have you read in order to prepare you for medicine?

Answer 4

I read Do No Harm by Henry Marsh, which was all about his experiences as a neurosurgeon, both the great successes and the unfortunate failures and the severe effects mistakes have on the patients.

Question 5

Why do you want to be a doctor rather than any other healthcare professional?

Answer 5

A career as a doctor involves quite a lot of problem solving and decision making, which are things I enjoy. I have done a lot of problem solving in maths A level, and although this is different to that in a medical career, the rewarding feeling when you find a solution will I expect be very similar. Also, medicine is a very broad field and so doing a degree in medicine keeps my options open, as there is a wide variety of high level options. In my work experience at Tunbridge wells hospital, I observed an echocardiogram and noticed how the doctor applied her scientific knowledge to reading the echocardiogram whilst also caring for the comfort of her patient, and it’s the combination of science and care that I am attracted by

Question 6

What do you look forward to most and least about being a doctor?

Answer 6

Being in such a privileged position that patients trust you enough to tell you things they may not share with anyone else, and then being able to help them and solve their problems.

What I look forward to least is having to give patients and relatives bad news, for example when there is nothing that can be done for a patient.

Question 7

Tell us about Hippocrates

Answer 7

Hippocrates was a Greek philosopher and physician referred to as the ‘father of medicine’. He argued for a rational approach to medical treatment based on close observations of patients. The Hippocratic oath is about the passing of knowledge on to future generations of medics and respecting patients and treating them to the best of their ability.

Question 8

Can you tell me about a significant recent advance in medicine and why it interests you?

Answer 8

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Question 9

What do you consider to be important advances in medicine in the last 100 years?

Answer 9

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Question 10

Tell me about some significant medical stories in the news recently

Answer 10

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Question 11

Tell us about something in the history of medicine that interests you

Answer 11

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Question 12

Tell me about your EPQ

Answer 12

For my EPQ dissertation I looked into the case of Charlie Gard and questioned whether the doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital were right to deny Charlie experimental treatment based on the law and the ethical guidelines of the GMC. I also looked into the biology behind Charlie’s disease, an encephalopathy form of RRM2B related Mitochondrial DNA Depletion Syndrome, and the experimental treatment proposed by Dr Michio Hirano in America.I concluded that measured against the legal and ethical guidelines, the doctors did the right thing. They always did their best to act in Charlie Gard’s best interest and abide by the ethical pillar of nonmaleficence by not experimenting on Charlie. When they failed to reach an agreement with Charlie’s parents that Charlie should be taken off life support rather than gambling with experimental treatment, they rightly took the case to court, where judges agreed with their decision.

Question 13

What are you most proud of in your personal statement?

Answer 13

Volunteering, being able to have a positive impact on those in my local community, gaining experience of palliative care.

Question 14

Tell me about a team situation in which your communication skills were vital

Answer 14

Training and leading a new volunteer on his first shadow shift at the hospice.

Question 15

What do you think about nurses developing extended roles and undertaking tasks previously carried out by doctors?

Answer 15

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Question 16

What ways of working and studying have you developed that you think will assist you through medical school and what will you need to improve?

Answer 16

I have found that being very organised with study is the way to make the most of the time available.

Question 17

Tell me two personal qualities of yours that you think will make you a good doctor, and two you need to work on.

Answer 17

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Question 18

What attributes do you think are essential in a good doctor? Which do you have and which do you need to work on?

Answer 18

Integrity: Being honest and trustworthy ensures that patients have confidence in you and are more likely to tell you all the details about their conditions and problems.
Compassion and empathy: Understanding the feelings of your patients and wanting to do something to help them.

Question 19

What problems are there in the NHS at the moment?

Answer 19

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Question 20

Imagine you are on a committee able to recommend only one of two new surgical treatments to be made available through the NHS. The treatments are: an artificial heart for babies born with heart defects, or a replacement hip for people with severe arthritis. Both treatments are permanent and so never need repeating, and they cost the same. On what grounds would you make your arguments?

Answer 20

The life expectancy after both treatments is of importance, as is the quality of life after treatment, because the effect the treatment has on peoples lives makes a massive difference.
The number of people that need each treatment is important as it tells you how many people can be helped

Question 21

What are your thoughts on euthanasia?

Answer 21

For: In cases where a patient’s illness is terminal and their quality of life is very poor and unlikely to improve, euthanasia could be seen as the best option. This is because it puts an end to the person’s suffering, which is futile suffering if they aren’t going to come out the other side. There would, of course, have to be very strict guidelines in deciding whether euthanasia can take place in each individual case. Assessing autonomy would be highly important to decisions regarding euthanasia as they have to be able to make their own decisions at this time.

Against: Ending peoples’ lives prematurely, even if it is their own wish, can be seen as immoral. Can be argued that it is never in someones best interests to die and euthanasia goes against the ethical pillar of nonmaleficence.

Question 22

What impressed you most about the doctors in your work experience?

Answer 22

Professionalism:

Teamwork and communication:

Question 23

What do you think about the activities of the charity Médecins sans Frontières?

Answer 23

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Question 24

Should alternative or complimentary medicine be funded by the NHS?

Answer 24

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Question 25

Should the NHS be involved in non-essential surgery?

Answer 25

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Question 26

Should the NHS fund the treatment of self-inflicted diseases?

Answer 26

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Question 27

What do you think about animal testing?

Answer 27

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Question 28

Medicine will bring you into contact with a vast range of different people with all different cultures; what experience have you had with different types of people?

Answer 28

Volunteering: I serve people from all different backgrounds at the hospital shop and at Pilgrims hospice the patients and their relatives can have all different cultures. It’s important to respect the beliefs of others, even when they do not align with your own, and to never be prejudiced based on peoples race, sex, religion or other factors that make them who they are.

Perry: I have had a foster brother for the best part of 2 years who came from a very different family to my own and it has been important to act as a role model to him and guide him as he grows up.

Question 29

What is the difference between empathy and compassion?

Answer 29

Empathy- The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.
Compassion- Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of another person, followed by a desire to help alleviate suffering.